At that time I felt it was worth explaining to a younger audience just what an important contribution he had made to the development of trans activism in the UK.

I also had to explain that if you wanted a precious copy of his book you would need to resort to some charmingly retro means to obtain it.

Mark eventually took the big leap though. Now, with the assistance of the company who helped him self-publish his updated biography, you can purchase it online and download to a range of eReader devices, including the iPad/iPhone and devices that use the universal ePub format.

Worth the read

Mark was too modest to pen a blurb for the iBook Store edition. However, this is what I wrote for him.

Born a girl in wartime Britain, Brenda never fitted in as a child. The young Rees even looked like a boy. Thus it was that he finally found the means to permanently become a man almost thirty years later, in 1971. Whilst Mark was accepted by neighbours and friends, he rapidly found that his new embodiment was not accepted by the state. He would be unable to marry as a man and the Church of England rebutted his desire to become a priest because he remained a female in law. Undeterred, in 1986 Rees became the first British transsexual person to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights. His bid failed but in the process initiated a modern era of transsexual people using the law to bring about changes in their rights. Dear Sir or Madam is no political polemic though. Quite the reverse, it is a thoughtful account of a true gentle man, searching for understanding of his own self as much as the understanding and acceptance of the world around him.

Others have also reviewed the book. Professor Arthur Sullivan published this review for the LGBT History Month web site in April this year. The Religious Archives Network also profiled Mark and the book here in July 2009, when the paperback version was printed.

Where to purchase

For iBooks users the procedure is simple. Just open the iBooks app, go to the store, and search by name for 'Dear Sir or Madam' as illustrated above. The Apple price is £7.49.

If you don't have an eReader or tablet then the Adobe Digital Editions application can be downloaded free for Windows and Mac platforms. This makes it easy to open and read ePub format books. You can also copy limited amounts of text to share or quote.

Mark isn't planning to make the book available directly for Kindle, as the marketing terms would leave him with very little income. However, there are apps available to convert ePub files into Kindle's mobi format … and I've certainly got a copy that opens perfectly well on my own Kindle.

The BBC's argument defending this policy is that coverage of subjects relevant to these communities will be achieved in general mainstream programming instead.

Aziz Rashid of BBC North West told the Lesbian and Gay Foundation, “We have taken the view that we can represent LGBT issues in our mainstream news programming."

Well, if this snapshot from the iPlayer is anything to go by this morning they've got a bit of catching up to do.

"No results for lgbt" it said … for a search across all of TV and Radio.

Incompetent

I asked Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender supporters of the BBC's specialist 'Gay Hour' programme which kinds of topics they thought mainstream programme presenters would be incapable of covering in an intellectually sound fashion.

These were a few of their suggestions...

Bisexual invisibility

LGBT people in care homes

LGBT arts and culture

Sex, intimacy, relationships and family

Violence, symbolic and physical, towards LGBTQI people

The intersecting disadvantage that can attach to being gay, black, working class, old, disabled, etc...

History of LGBT culture

You can see the point. Presenters who feel obliged to treat mainstream audiences as starting from a low understanding threshold very seldom manage to cover topics like these in ways that LGBTQI would consider 'in-depth'.

Personally, in the past, I've lost count of the times where brief appearances on TV or radio have been overshadowed by inappropriate questions about my body … never reaching the serious topics I wanted to discuss before those fateful words, "well unfortunately we've run out of time there".

Mainstream media has tended to use people like myself, rather than serving them.

Exclusives

When you ask people questions from a position of in-depth knowledge you get much better results. When I personally interviewed transsexual reality contestant Nadia Almada about her experiences and feelings in 2010 I recorded an insight into her feelings that so- called "professional" presenters had completely failed to achieve.

In fact the plans, if carried out, will mean that BBC Local Radio will be barely 'local' at all.

The BBC needs to save money. That's an unfortunate given.

The programme to find budget savings has the Orwellian Newspeak title "Delivering Quality First" … presumably in the hope that nobody will notice that quality is generally the first thing to go when you start trying to make big savings of the kind the Corporation is forced to find.

Tellingly for our society, the first of these drew more mainstream indignation and calls to action than the second.

Campaign groups were set up on social media sites such as Facebook. One hundred thousand people supported 6 Music … a station which some of them might never have even listened to before.

The swell of indignation was so strong that the BBC rapidly backed down and both stations were saved and continue today.

The BBC still had to find cuts though, so it was back to the drawing board.

National Content for Local Radio

The latest wheeze, therefore, is to save money by cutting the heart out of the Corporation's local radio network … a collection of small scale stations around the country, first begun with a station in Leicester (one of Britain's most minority ethnic cities) back in 1967.

For LGBT Citizen Manchester this will not be the first time it has faced the axe. Shortly after the previous station manager, John Ryan, took up his post in 2006 he decided the show should go back then.

As reported in the Daily Mirror at the time, the station's official line was "Gay and Lesbian issues need to be incorporated into mainstream programming rather than just being relegated to a weekly show".

It must have seemed like Deja Vue to the Gay Hour's presenters, therefore, when the new station manager Kate Squire, started making the same arguments in 2012, shortly after arriving in her post.

If Only...

The problem with the argument that issues should be mainstreamed is that it doesn't work.

It's rather like arguing that profoundly disabled children will do better by being placed in ordinary classes at school, with no special support or attention.

It sounds laudable. And it expresses where all minorities would eventually aim to be. In the meantime, however, it doesn't deliver as promised.

This goes back to the principle I articulated right at the beginning of this blog. You don't achieve equal outcomes for diverse groups by pretending they're not different and trying to shoehorn their needs into vanilla programming.

How often, for instance, do mainstream media take time out to talk about big cultural events like Ramadan or Eid, except in the most bland and homogenised fashion?

Does mainstream radio devote time to issues such as whether it is safe for diabetic muslims to fast? Not often. Because mainstream presenters lack the breadth of cultural knowledge to ask the detailed questions that asian presenters would think to ask.

Likewise, how often have you heard mainstream radio or TV presenters dealing in depth with issues of importance to jewish listeners? It would be lovely if they did … and other listeners would learn volumes … but it hasn't happened yet.

And I'll make the bold prediction that it would be unlikely to happen once shows like BBC Manchester's Jewish Hour or Irish Hour or Gay Hour have been axed as well.

Far from getting equal value from BBC radio that their taxes pay for, minority listeners will lose out.

Although events have been running in many UK cities every November 20th for many years now, it's something that BBC mainstream programming has not reported. This is not surprising of course, because the news values in mainstream news and current affairs mean that niche events like these wouldn't be covered for any minority.

There would have to be a serious disturbance at such an event … a murder perhaps … for programmes to take an interest. And even then the coverage would be shallow … designed for what the general audience could understand, rather than what LGBT listeners might like to know.

By comparison LGBT Citizen Manchester's reporters have been out to cover the event for several years now, interviewing attendees sensitively about why the vigil matters, and helping Lesbian and Gay listeners to learn something in the process.

Mainstreaming coverage may ostensibly tick a box. Broadcasters like the BBC may think they are delivering equality. Yet they are achieving the exact reverse, because the minority audiences (be they asian, jewish, irish, chinese, lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender) get little information about issues that concern them.

Ignoring Their Own Research

Paradoxically the BBC would seem to be ignoring its own research if it axes shows like LGBT Citizen Manchester.

Tim Davie, Chair of the BBC Working Group on Portrayal and Inclusion of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Audiences, responsible for commissioning the research, said: "The BBC has a responsibility to serve all our audiences as best we can and there are clear commitments we are taking from this study. We have already begun to share the research with content teams across the BBC in order to continue the progress we have made towards achieving more authentic and diverse portrayal of lesbian, gay and bisexual people."

Amanda Rice, BBC Head of Diversity, said: "[this research] sends a clear signal to all our licence fee payers that the BBC is committed to meaningful engagement with all audiences. Not only is this a key priority within our diversity strategy, it is also one of the best ways we can continue to learn about what the UK's diverse communities want and expect of the BBC."

Turn Again Aunty

As mentioned already, the BBC is no stranger to making U-turns if it can be persuaded.

Plans to axe "The Gay Hour" in 2006 were reversed when it was plain that the intended policy of covering LGBT issues in the mainstream simply wasn't sufficient.

The arguments that were wrong then are still wrong today. A simple Equality Analysis would have revealed that without the embarrassing consequences of announcing a policy that will eventually have to be rethought again.

Is this just a rite of passage for new station managers at BBC Manchester? Is it somewhere in the job description that they have to axe their specialist community programming, only to discover what a spectacularly inept decision that really is?

Plans to close 6 Music and the Asian network in 2010 were also embarrassingly withdrawn, following a public outcry. Does this demonstrate that the executives paid to run the network simply don't know what their audiences want?

Parliamentary Support

Already the current proposed cuts are being opposed by local MPs. Two, Graham Stringer and John Leech, have tabled Early Day Motions (EDMs) calling for a rethink.

Concerned listeners have also begun organising themselves since the policy first emerged this week. Facebook already has a Save Citizen Manchester LGBT group for people who want to become involved in campaigning. On Twitter people are using the hashtag #savegayhour.

The Facebook page lists key BBC managers whom people can write to with their concerns and encourages them to ask their MP to sign one or both EDMs.

Better Still

Better still, however, the BBC could just improve the quality of the training it gives to senior managers, so that they don't make these crass ill-considered decisions in the first place, imagining that platitudes about mainstream programming really address genuine needs for equality.

And if the BBC suddenly sees sense then a good outcome would be to recognise that, far from axing specialist programmes like these, the Corporation could actually give the national evening content more of a distinct flavour by broadcasting the shows nationwide. Then, perhaps, there could be a benefit for all from the reorganisation of BBC local radio.

About Me

My unique proposition used to be that I combined the solid experience of over 30 years of successful business and IT consultancy at a senior level with over 20 equally successful years learning my craft in the Equality and Diversity field. The combination is an E&D expert with all the disciplines that business managers want from a consultant providing them with advice.

I've been a successful public speaker; I produced the world's first regular E&D-themed Podcast "Just Plain Sense"; I was appointed as an advisor for the Department of Health; I chaired the North West Equality and Diversity Group for three successive years; I amassed a great deal of experience applying equality principles to the health economy, and people generally STILL pay attention when I've got something to say. My widely praised books reflect that experience and viewpoint.

Views expressed here are those of myself and my former company Plain Sense Ltd. They are not represented to be the views of any of my professional clients except where expressly stated